Your Wardrobe Unlock'd

Gina Barrett shows us how to make Deaths' Head buttons, one type of the many different type of  passementerie buttons. 

How to create stand-alone miniature works of textile art with cord, thread and a few pins.

Tips and tricks for scoring big on eBay - and introducing some less well-trodden auction sites for vintage and antique deals.

Charles Frederick Worth is remembered as the father of haute couture, and Suzi Clarke has a couple of treasures of his to show us...

The nuts and bolts of Regency:  how to be original, innovative AND authentic when Regency costumes are so often reproduced.

Izabela walks us step by step through the creation of an 1785 riding habit, including gold embroidered buttons.

Lynn finds out whether several tools and machines are worth the money, or whether they just make a simple job more complicated. 

Diane shows us how to use "Match Points" to guarantee that your garment has perfectly matched plaids or stripes.

Plaids are Difficult, Stripes are Tricky, so we avoid them. But they can be tamed to impressive results: Diane shows how!

A bad fabric choice can cause an accurate, researched, handsewn reproduction to look disappointingly modern. Here's how to get it right.

I'm back with a tailoring topic that some of you requested and I'm more than happy to supply: how to cut and sew a pair of gentlemen's trousers. 

Making sense of the vast array of shirts, breeches, trousers, waistcoats, jackets and coats, stocks, stockings, garters and cravats.

"The Other Stash?" you ask.  "I thought we already dealt with The Stash."  And indeed we did last month, at some length. 

However, there is more to the finished look than just a beautifully made dress.  Shoes and hats, coats and wraps, parasols, stockings, handbags, gloves, handkerchiefs, fans, a host of small incidentals, not to mention corsets and other undergarments... all of those items, Dear Reader, comprise The Other Stash.

Can any of us pinpoint the precise moment when our modest collection of fabric, trim, patterns, buttons, and other costuming materials turned into a bona fide, oh-my-gosh-it's-taking-over-the-house Stash?

Probably not.

Like Carl Sandburg's "Fog," it crept in on little cat feet, and now we find ourselves in possession of more Stuff than we can possibly recall... as we stand at the sales counter buying even more of what we might already have tucked into closets and drawers, stacked in boxes, and hidden under the bed.

Wearing stripes makes a statement, although exactly what that statement means changes according to period and context. When you use stripes in a historical costume, you might want to consider what message you're sending. If you're dressing a character in stripes, make sure that this person fits the historical associations with the pattern.

Kendra and Trystan show you what stripes can mean, when they're appropriate and for whom.

Then they'll share all the secrets to choosing, using, cutting and matching striped fabric in your outfit.

After a wait of almost ten years, Patterns of Fashion 4 was released in late 2008. Janet Arnold's final work covers all kinds of extant ruffs, collars, smocks, shifts and chemises in astounding detail, with mouth-watering photographs and the clear, complete annotated patterns that she was so famous for.

To celebrate, we thought we'd feature details on where to get some of the fine quality materials to re-create the items in the book.

How do you clean and care for wool without shrinking it?

Our fabrics diva Diana Habra answers some questions we've all asked ourselves at one point or another!

So you want to make historical clothing but you aren’t sure what type of fabric to use?

Hopefully I can shed some light on the subject and help steer you toward more historically accurate fabrics and a more authentic look.

First let’s discuss the four basic natural fibers used in clothing up to the 20th century: Wool, Silk, Linen, and Cotton.

So you want to make historical clothing but you aren’t sure what type of fabric to use?

Hopefully I can shed some light on the subject and help steer you toward more historically accurate fabrics and a more authentic look.

First let’s discuss the four basic natural fibers used in clothing up to the 20th century: Wool, Silk, Linen, and Cotton.

It was a couple of years ago that, resigned to a half hour of boredom, I picked up a nondescript magazine in my doctor's surgery. To my surprise and delight, it wasn't long before I was willing the delay to continue for as long as possible, for within the pages of that dog-eared periodical was an article about the Gainsborough Silk Weaving Company.